Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by a combination of symptoms that interfere with a person's ability to work, sleep, study, eat, and enjoy once-pleasurable activities. Major depression is typically disabling and prevents a person from functioning normally. Some patients with MDD may experience only a single episode within their lifetime, but more often, an individual/patient with MDD can have multiple episodes. Two diagnostic criteria for MDD are depressed mood and loss of interest or pleasure in most activities, at least one of which must occur for a duration of at least two weeks. Additional diagnostic symptoms, including dysphoric mood, appetite change, and thoughts of death are also common. Furthermore, depression is often comorbid with anxiety, which can also have a debilitating effect on individuals.
Unfortunately, current standards of detection, diagnosis and treatment of MDD, anxiety, and/or other depressive disorders, as well as social barriers to seeking diagnosis and treatment, are responsible for delays in diagnoses of disorders and/or misdiagnoses of disorders, which cause disorders to remain untreated. Furthermore, changes in depressive state often go undetected, resulting in regressions in depressive state, patient harm, or even death. While the delays can be due to the sensitive nature of such disorders, current standards of detection diagnosis are severely deficient in many controllable aspects. In addition to these deficiencies, further limitations in detection, diagnosis, treatment, and/or monitoring of patient progress during treatment prevent adequate care of patients with diagnosable and treatable depressive disorders.
As such, there is a need in the field of mental health for a new and useful method for modeling behavior and states of depression and/or anxiety. This invention creates such a new and useful method for modeling behavior and states of depression and/or anxiety.